Athan came home late with a friend and carrying a small child. It wasn’t the worst thing I’d seen him doing, but it was close.

My first thought, as my first thought always seemed to be, was concern. Was this man a threat? Would he betray Athan? Did he know Athan was an Exhuman? Would he reveal Athan’s whereabouts to those who would do him harm?

I had to breathe and remind myself that Athan was fully capable, the most capable…and only, until tonight…man I’d ever met. And he had yet to let me down. Stir up trouble? Certainly. Need some guidance growing up? Of course. Keeping his raging hormones in check…?

Well. I might tease him more than strictly necessary, but I couldn’t say I complained when he looked at me.

But back on track. I looked into my holos and saw everything in the room. Athan didn’t know it, but I was able to use the mass-fab to create a couple small camera drones. For now they were situated in the corners of the room to give me a three-dimensional view of the area, instead of the one camera on the AEGIS device. I would get around to telling him eventually, but for now I was just testing my capabilities. They worked well, but the wireless on the device needed work. Perhaps a repair drone should be my next project, that could probably improve Athan’s life as well.

Ugh. Getting sidetracked again. Athan and his friend had finished putting the child down in his sleeping kit, snuggled in a nest of rope. They came over to speak to me, at long last.

“And this is AEGIS. Say hello AEGIS. This is Wynn.”

“Hello Wynn,” I said, attempting to look cheerful and hide any reservations I had about him. He didn’t look entirely convinced, but maybe it was the medium through which we were speaking. I could see that being fairly off-putting.

“Hello AEGIS. Interesting name.”

“I get that a lot. Well, I got that from Athan, and counting you, that makes pretty much the entire population out here.” He laughed wheezily, an easy, carefree laugh. It annoyed me just a little bit, as I adjusted the camera depth of field and adjusted my wrist braces for optimal support.

I was not a huge fan of carefree, and hoped the man didn’t rub off on Athan too much.

“What were you two, or three doing out so late?” I asked, trying to sound casual. The man laughed again at this for some reason.

“We were just doing some fishing. Wynn gave me some great tips and is going to give me one of his rods. Says he can always make more.”

Athan gave the man a big grin and I frowned before I could stop myself. Wynn caught it and laughed again.

“I think I’m making your wife jealous,” he said. Athan laughed but I burned bright red.

“I am not his wife!” I pouted, stomping a foot and hearing the paltry sound echo in the void of my room. “For your information, I stay at home and fix his things because I am physically confined, not because of some…some…social contract!” I finished, heated, and a little lame.

“I wasn’t disparaging you, young AEGIS. Being a wife is one of the most beautiful things a woman can be.”

“Be that as it may, I am still not his wife, thank you.” The old man laughed again, and Athan did too. I wished he’d stop that.

I needed to change the topic before the old coot got Athan talking to him again, so I cleared my throat and bent forward to show just a little cleavage.

“Athan, while you were out…super late, I might add, which I don’t approve of. Didn’t I already warn you about bears? But while you were out, I got started on that little project we talked about earlier…LOL.” I ended with my best shot at a schoolgirl giggle, which succeeded in transfixing Athan but made the old man snort and laugh.

“Oh, I see!” Athan said, walking over to the mass-fab. He peered into the grating and probably saw the beginnings of the data crystal being assimilated. “Looks like it’s coming along nicely. Did this use up all the quartz? I can make another run if you need more.”

“Unfortunately, most of it. We’ll need more to make more, but this one should last me a few days at least…it is a lot of data.”

“Cool. When can we get started?”

“Printing should be done in a day or so. I was going to turn it off at night so you can sleep–“

“No need. I’m a heavy sleeper, and I got quite a workout today, so I think I can sleep through anything. Speaking of which, we should probably sack out, old man.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Wynn replied. “I might sleep just outside the door. Accustomed to the earth under my feet, if you know what I mean,” he said kicking the toe of his boot against the concrete floor.

“You can have my hammock for the night, or there’s plenty of weave around to pile up a bed.”

“No, thank you all the same, but I prefer the stars overhead. Good night lad, see you in the morn. Good night girlie, nice to meet you.”

We both bid Wynn a good night. Athan padded around a little bit, getting ready for bed. He had a sort of crappy set of boxers he’d sewn himself which he slept in, in a big pile of synthetic weave he’d washed and piled up in his hammock. Watching him change in the corner supposedly out of my sight was one of the most exciting parts of any day, and one of the reasons I really didn’t want to tell him about my camera drones.

He had the appearance of someone who’d lost a lot of weight very quickly, but still maintained some musculature. Now that he was basically fat-free, his sexy abs were especially obvious, but his pecs and arms were eye-candy too. I always tried not to look too much lower than that, but had accidentally peeked for a moment a time or two. The whole experience always left me feeling flushed and my dress feeling tight. I also had to be careful not to drool on my keyboard, or let Athan know that anything was amiss.

“’Night AEGIS,” he said, startling me.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh! ‘Night. Take care out there,” I said automatically, and then realized how stupid that was. He fortunately chuckled, thinking I was just making a joke. Safe for now.

He hit the power switch on the work lights daisy-chained up in the ceiling beams and dropped the room into blackness. I, of course, could see perfectly with cameras that peered far beyond the visible spectrum, but Athan had to stumble blindly to his bed. I really needed to mass-fab a remote switch for him. Or maybe just something wireless, so I could do it myself. Wouldn’t have to fret about him leaving the lights on all day then.

Soon enough, I heard him snoring away and settled in. These were my most productive hours, when I knew he was safe and anytime I had any doubts flicker across my mind, could placate them by listening to his snoring in the corner. While it could be grating, it was also quite soothing.

I pulled up the template I was working on for a new type of drone and got back to work. My hands were killing me, as it felt like they always were, but I powered through even though I knew that was probably worst for them. I could rest them when I was talking to Athan or flicking through camera feeds.

This was my secret. My real secret, not the drones, or the plans for the hot-water shower I was hoping to surprise Athan with, or any of that. My real secret, that I zealously guarded because I didn’t understand it myself and that scared me. I worried that if Athan found out, he’d be scared off, or at least not look at me quite the same. After our talk about Saga and his irrational hate of people from China (wherever that was) and Exhumans, I was even more scared. I just wanted to be normal. You can’t be prejudiced against normal people, and if Athan decided he hated me and turned the box off and threw me away…I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

My secret was that in this cell, I never stopped working. I never ate, I never slept, I never sat down, I never used the bathroom. I stood on this spot twenty-four hours a day. Sometimes I got tired and spaced out for a bit, sometimes my hands hurt so bad it felt like there was fire from my knuckles to my wrists and I had to take a break. But always I was here, working, or waiting.

I was worried that Athan would ask some telling questions at some point, but I’d dodged the issue long enough that I think we were safe. But it was another reason I didn’t like him bringing Wynn and Tate in. More people meant more questions meant more possibility of being outed as…whatever I was. I didn’t want to think of myself as an Exhuman like those two, but I didn’t know what else there could be that lived without food or rest, and could do what I did with machines.

I rehearsed constantly questions which I thought might trip me up. Something as simple as “what did you eat?” I didn’t know any foods except what Athan had mentioned, so I could say one of those, or make a joke and try to laugh it off. If worst came to worst, my emergency plan was to accidentally flash Athan again. It would destroy my pride, but if that’s what it took to keep me in his life, I could be his cam-girl.

But that was insanity. Athan liked me, trusted me, and I hoped I’d proven a good confidant and a useful assistant. And wasn’t that the basis of a strong relationship?

Wasn’t it?

I actually had no idea. I had no memories of having a friend before.

Something tripped my motion sensors and I brought the image full-screen. Something creeping through the front door of the bunker, always left open by Athan, the damn fool. Athan’s snoring was still filling the room, so whatever it was, it hadn’t woken him. I switched to night-vision optics on my camera and saw Wynn walking slowly and silently toward me, his footfalls silent on the concrete floor.

I entered a command and turned the holo on at 50% brightness and my speakers at 15% volume. Prior testing had confirmed these levels low enough to not have an effect on sleeping Athan’s pulse or respiratory rate.

“Why are you creeping around. You almost gave me a heart attack, old man.”

“Just wanted to talk to you one-on-one.”

“Whatever you want to say, it can wait until morning.”

“That wouldn’t be much of a one-on-one, would it?”

“Well, I’m not much interested, as I was sleeping. I’m very tired, so TTYL.” I feigned a stretching yawn and turned off the holo.

“Shame. The boy talked about you at length earlier today.”

I turned the holo back on. “Really?”

He laughed. “No, not really. But he did talk about love and hate quite a bit, and I might be an old fisherman, but I think I know a thing or two about what he was talking about.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Falling for the old bait-and-switch. Presumably the oldest trick in the book, if my amnesia didn’t make me forget what exactly the book was.

“Seems Athan, he’s a troubled lad. Got some kind of stuff all twisted up inside him. Lives a peaceful enough life out here, and is lucky to have such beautiful company, if you don’t mind my saying, but is unable to enjoy it.”

“Well, yeah. He’s an Exhuman. He hates himself.”

“I got that. And he was talking about hate a lot today. One of the first things he mentioned. Any idea who else that might be referring to?”

“Saga.” I nodded mutely. There was another person I didn’t approve of. I had given Athan honest advice because I wanted him to be happy with whatever decision he made, but if it were up to me, I’d have locked Saga even further away and never let her play her mind games on Athan, or anyone, ever again. Even now, I had nagging doubts whether she’d left a mark on his mind without him knowing.

“Right you are. He mentioned that one, seems to have a bit of a complex against her. But he also mentioned love. Now, do you know who that might be?”

I blushed and couldn’t look at the camera feed. “Um. Karu, maybe?”

“He didn’t mention that one. Has quite a harem, this Athan? Any other girls I should know about?”

I wasn’t sure I’d mind Wynn getting exploded by Karu, but thought he probably didn’t deserve it.

“No, Karu hates Athan more than Athan hates Saga.”

“Sounds about right. You dodged the question, though.”

I sighed. “What’s your point, oldster?”

“My point is, you don’t have to be so worried or protective of that boy. I’ve seen a lot of relationships in my day, and I can tell you that you are close to screwing this one up. You might think that showing a little skin here or there keeps him wrapped around your finger, but what really matters in a relationship is trust.”

“Trust? Me? Of course Athan can trust me. He sleeps with me at his back every night. He–“

“I was talking about you. You need to trust him. He’s not going to meet some flying harlot out there and leave you alone forever.”

“That’d be Karu again.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Continue.”

“Erm, anyway. Even if that did by some miraculous chance happen, he’d come back for you. He’s a good boy with a good head on his shoulders and his feet on the right values. I knew it as soon as I saw him. You just need to trust that he’s going to do the right thing and I’m sure the two of you will have a long and happy life together.”

His last words filled me with a dumb, warm feeling, but I wasn’t ready to let down my guard just yet. What ulterior motives could he have? Why sneak in here just to tell me that?

So I asked him.

“You sneak in here just to tell me that? Why?”

He laughed, quietly, to avoid waking up Athan. This made his laugh even wheezier than it had been, which was very distracting.

“Because, young lady, I’ve lived a long time and learned a great many things, and I won’t be around too much longer to pass them onto other people. I’m a man who left the world behind so I could go out and do what I truly loved. Does that sound like the kind of man who’d pass on an opportunity to dole out some good love advice and help two of his new friends along a little bit?”

“No. It does sound like a crazy old man though.”

“Well, can you blame me? I’ve been living out here for more than twenty years now. I think I’ve earned a little crazy. Besides, if you two don’t get this thing sorted soon, I won’t be around for the wedding.”

He was joking, but when he said ‘wedding’ I heard bells go off in my head. The church kind, not the warning kind. I just stood there dumbstruck for a while as this new thought slowly penetrated my being. Wed. Ding. Wedding.

“You…have given me some things to think about,” I said distractedly and turned off the holo. “TYVM, and good night.”

“Sleep well, girlie.”

He crept out and I kept my main feed pointed at the door in case he came back. But I brought up a second feed on another holo which showed me Athan’s sleeping form. He muttered something in his sleep. I got no more work done that night, instead stood and held myself, watching every contour of his sleeping form until morning.